In April 2023, the report of an independent commission investigating sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Freiburg showed that he hid files, transferred perpetrators and ignored church law.
In 1974 and 1980 Zollitsch was elected to the general council of the Schoenstatt Institute. In 1983, he was named archdiocesan personnel manager for Freiburg im Breisgau. He became a member of the cathedralchapter in 1984 as well.
As of 2008, according to Earth Times, Zollitsch had been considered to be a liberal in his convictions, and has described himself as being "theologically and personally" close to Cardinal Karl Lehmann.[1]
As of 2008, Zollitsch has accepted civil unions by states but was against the term "gay marriage".[2] As of 2013, he favoured women becoming deacons.[3] In 2009, he said in a statement he was working towards damage control in the wake of the controversy over negationist comments made by Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) bishop Richard Williamson.[4]
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Germany, 2010 - present
In March 2010 Zollitsch met with the Pope Benedict to further discuss the widening sexual abuse scandal in Germany , when former students at Canisius-Kolleg Berlin Berlin's élite Jesuit high school, went public with accusations against two former priests.[5]
Similar allegations then emerged at other Catholic schools and institutions in Germany, including a Benedictine monastery and several boarding schools. German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger condemned the "wall of silence" within the Catholic hierarchy, accusing the church of hiding behind a 2001 Vatican directive that called for cases of abuse to be investigated internally before going to state authorities. "This directive makes clear that even serious abuse allegations fall under papal confidentiality and thus should not be forwarded on outside the church," she said.[6]
In April 2023, the report of an independent commission investigating sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Freiburg showed that he hid files, transferred perpetrators and ignored church law.[7][8]
Materialistic ostentation
In the wake of the 2013 ouster of Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst as bishop of Limburg, Zollitsch distinguished materialistic ostentation from the cost of supporting the church's ordinary administration: regarding his car, for example, he argued, "To me that car is not a status symbol; it is the office I use when I am traveling."[9][dead link]
